Former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio sported a shaved head, goatee, black-framed glasses and a khaki prison jumpsuit for a hearing today in which he was granted a waiver from attending his resentencing in June. Nacchio, who is serving a six-year prison term in Pennsylvania for criminal insider trading, received a federal escort to U.S. District Court in Denver to attend the hearing. Sketch by Jeff Kandyba.

Nacchio, serving a six-year prison term in Minersville, Pa., for criminal insider trading, returned to Denver via federal escort to waive his right to attend his resentencing in June. A judge accepted his waiver.

In his first public remarks since he was indicted in 2005, Nacchio said he doesn’t believe showing up for the resentencing would help his cause. The bespectacled Brooklyn native also said he didn’t want to spend too much time away from his family, noting that a round-trip escort from Pennsylvania can take up to eight weeks and include long periods of solitary confinement.

“I remain an important figure in my extended family,” Nacchio, 60, said during a five-minute speech. “I have a 92-year-old mother now who is not well.”

He broke down at that point, and his attorney handed him a tissue.

“She’s been in and out of the hospital a couple of times,” Nacchio continued. “My two brothers are not in good health either. Unfortunately, I’m the one who is in good health.”

U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger mandated Nacchio’s appearance Tuesday to determine whether his waiver was informed and voluntary.

“I hereby find that Mr. Nacchio is fully competent to waive his right to attend his resentencing,” Krieger said at the end of the 20-minute hearing.

Nacchio was led into the courtroom with his hands cuffed behind his back and was led out the same way.

In spring 2007, Nacchio was convicted on 19 counts of illegal insider trading connected to his sale of $52 million in Qwest stock in early 2001.

Last year, an appeals-court panel granted Nacchio a resentencing, ruling that the trial judge erred when he sentenced Nacchio to six years in prison and ordered him to forfeit $52 million and pay $19 million in fines. The order means Nacchio’s prison term could be shortened and the forfeiture could be reduced. The resentencing is scheduled for June 22 to June 24.

A year into his prison term, and appearing slimmer than he did during his trial, Nacchio told Krieger on Tuesday that he has met “plenty of fine people” behind bars.

“As a matter of fact, I’d go so far to say I’ve met better people in prison than people I used to work with,” said Nacchio, who once referred to U S West workers as “clowns.”

He said he was the only Catholic Eucharistic minister in his prison camp.

“When I’m not there, we don’t have Sunday services,” Nacchio said.

He said two of his fellow inmates were to receive their first Communions this month but that they won’t happen because he is away.

“Now, those aren’t earth-shaking things, but to us in prison, it’s important to support each other,” Nacchio said. “That’s my world now.”

About two dozen people attended Tuesday’s hearing, including a few retirees. Retiree attorney Curtis Kennedy said Nacchio’s remarks could have helped him if they were made at the resentencing.

Krieger told Nacchio that he has until the date of the resentencing to change his mind and attend, as long as he can be transferred in time.

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